You've read about the 2000 Chicago NPPL, now you can see it! The tape is about 99 minutes long so it only covers the highlights of the event. There's a brief interview with Will Arroyo and a quickie tech section on the Shocktech 'Cocker by Danny Love. There are also a couple of cheesy sections with some giggly girls wiggling around. Everyone will like the mudslides and the Front Bunker Footage.

The tape is pretty well done with some exceptions. I liked the multi-camera views and the addition of the low angle camera footage. The video flowed together very well and is clear and in focus for the most part. However the audio commentation pretty well sucked. It uses an echo/reverb effect so that you think it was recorded live at the event. Problem is that it's so distorted you can't understand them easily. The commentation wasn't very good either. With the echo/reverb it sounded like the commentator was drunk or stoned. The audio from the field was pretty decent. It was as clear as could be expected with masks on but the audio from the low angle camera was softer than it should have been.

I loved the Paintball Pimpology commercial. It was possibly the best part of the video. I understand the need for the Macrovision copy protection but it does have its drawbacks. On two high-end direct video systems it didn't play the audio correctly. If I bypassed the direct video and went to the TV channel instead, it sounded proper. On a standard TV-VCR setup it worked fine.

Overall I liked the video but hated the audio "commentation". In the past Traumahead has used fast paced, upbeat music to accompany their videos. They shouldn't have changed something that worked. At home I suggest you turn on the video, turn down the audio and crank up the stereo. I think you'll enjoy it more that way. This is a great tape to play in a paintball store. The video is very eye catching and you don't need the audio turned up to explain the video.